Live ORT Classical Concerts starring Michele Campanella

 

This week, the Orchestra della Toscana (ORT) also moves ahead with their programming, in compliance with the latest directives of allowing a limited audience to enjoy evenings of live music at the Teatro Verdi. On October 21 and 22 Michele Campanella will lead and perform two authentic masterpieces of Viennese classicism, Mozart’s concerto K. 467 and Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto.

Michele Campanella enjoys conducting the works himself from the piano because he feels that only in this way he can take full responsibility for the performance, creating a definitive, univocal interpretation.  In his words, “don’t call me a pianist, I prefer the term ‘musician’: with the first one thinks of the hands, with the second of the heart and brain.”

The Neapolitan maestro and soloist is a multiple prize-winning pianist, and although he is a specialist in the works of Liszt, his repertoire ranges from Mozart through Beethoven and Brahms to the French composers, Franck, Ravel and Saint-Saens. Campanella is an avid chamber musician and also teaches in important Italian musical academies.

The Concerto n. 21 (K.467) by Mozart was written in 1785 when he was only 29, just six years before his early death. It was premiered by Wolfgang himself at the piano at a benefit concert at the National Court Theatre during which, according to some witnesses, he also did some of his famous improvisations. It is sometimes referred to as the Elvira Madigan concerto, after the 1967 Swedish film which featured the second movement.

Beethoven’s final piano Concerto, n. 5, was composed during the tumultuous times of the siege of Vienna by Napoleon in 1809. Most of the Viennese aristocracy fled the city, but others like Beethoven remained, hiding from the battles underground. He described Vienna as “a city filled with nothing but drums, cannon, marching men, and misery of all sorts.” By 1811 he was able to finish the piece, and the first performance took place on January 13, 1811 at the Palace of Prince Joseph Lobkowitz in Vienna, with Archduke Rudolf as the soloist.

The October 21 and 22 Teatro Verdi performances will have a duration of 1 hour and 15 minutes and will not have an intermission.  Tickets can be reserved on the ORT website. (anne lokken)